Utrillo, Maurice [key], 1883–1955, French painter. He was the son of the painter Suzanne Valadon and was adopted by the writer Miguel Utrillo. His mother taught him to paint in order to divert him from the alcoholism that ravaged him from a very early age. Utrillo's favorite themes were the street scenes of Paris, particularly of Montmartre, and Montmagny. Within an almost hallucinatory vision, he developed a personal style based on a modified cubism and a fine sense of atmosphere and composition. In his later years he lost much of his original power. An extremely prolific painter, Utrillo is well represented in American and European collections.
See biographies by W. George (1960) and P. de Polnay (rev. ed. 1969).
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